Meet Bode and Ohno Ohno,
a female, is in front. Do you see her white cheeks? Bode, a male, is in
back. After hatching, they were named after two athletes who won Olympic
medals.

Photo:
Mark Chenoweth

“We
actually name the birds at the International Crane Foundation (ICF).
But we don’t call them like pets,” says Marianne Wellington.
She is a biologist with ICF, where these birds were hatched and raised
to be Direct Autumn Release (DAR) birds. They were
supposed to be released with four
other DAR chicks to hang out with the new flock's older cranes.
Then the DAR chicks can follow the older birds south, and
learn the Whooping Crane migration
route from them.

“The
name theme for 2006 [the year they hatched] was the Olympics," said
Marianne. "I asked people to suggest
names connected with the Olympics. So, we had Bode (#29-06),
a skier, and Ohno (#31-06), a skater.”